A rather large field a seagull’s flap from the north Norfolk coast looks nothing like a paddy field these days. But turn the clock back a few years and the makers of the James Bond blockbuster Die Another Day were carefully building banks and planting grass tussocks before flooding the field.

Starring role: Deepdale Farm’s Far Eastern 007 treatment in Die Another Day.

Add a buffalo, a wooden shack and a helpful Thai family from a nearby Norfolk village and you have the stage for the awesome paddyfield scene involving the Lamborghini and Ferrari jettisoned in that famous aircraft door fight.

Farmer Jason Borthwick was most disappointed 007 stars Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry didn’t visit his farm during filming, but loved the land being in the limelight.

“It was quite exciting,” said Jason, diversification manager at Deepdale Farm in Burnham Deepdale.
His family farm is one of the busiest film location spots in Norfolk, transforming itself into anything from those paddyfields to a country kitchen for Coastal Kitchen and back to the years of the Great War for the BBC production of All The King’s Men.

Norfolk venues are popular as locations for films, video shoots, advertising productions and with fashion photographers and other programme makers, but don’t expect to make a fortune by offering your home, barn or fields as a location, said Jason.

Making it in movies: Jason Borthwick and the spectacular setting of his family farm at Burnham Deepdale, which has variously doubled as a paddy field in the Far East and a period setting for a first world war drama.

“It is not income you can rely on, see it as extra,” he said.
And be prepared to be extremely businesslike when dealing with those wanting to use your land. It is the location manager’s job to get the best possible location at the cheapest price,” he said, suggesting owners work out their costs and how much they want to make and then quadruple it.

“Then you may finish with something near the figure you want,” he said.
Deepdale Farm is a particularly versatile location because it is large – 1700 acres – and has a lot to offer. Besides the arable farm, it has two hostels, a tourist information centre, barn venue, unusual tepee accommodation, farm buildings useful for storage, space for parking and so on.

“We can be very flexible,” said Jason, who does like the farm being used as a location. It is good fun,” he said, recalling watching Die Another Day with friends in Australia and being able to point out his farm in the film.

But being a location is a business too and can be hard work.
He recommends someone who can answer queries being on site most of the time with the production companies in order to answer queries – anything from where people can park to finding a chain saw.

“And make sure that you agree payment in advance,” he said.

But he says film sets are far duller than people imagine. It took four weeks to set up the paddy field scene and just a few days to film it.
“You are standing around waiting for things to happen and it looks mind bogglingly boring for most of the time,” he said.

The farm has also featured in Dangerfield, he added. “They needed dyke to drive a Jaguar through,” he said, as if this was nothing out of the ordinary in north Norfolk.

Deepdale Farm is one of the 10,000 locations in the east of England which are available as film locations through screen agency Screen East.
With its head office in Norwich, Screen East is devoted to developing, supporting and promoting film and media activity in the area.

Funded by the UK Film Council and the East of England Development Agency it works to promote the east of England as a location for film and TV production.

It encourages production companies and photographers to come to the region by offering everything film crews could need. This includes helping to find locations along with everything else from caterers and generators to electricians, carpenters, technicians, film crews, hairdressers, make up artists, portable toilets and accommodation.

Nicky Dade of Screen East said the idea was to offer the complete package to companies wanting to film in the area.

“Our production guide lists everything they could want and shows we have the skills and the people.

“Because we have studios here like Anglia we do have world class technicians here,” said Nicky Dade of Screen East. It is one of the benefits, although Norfolk can seem a long way from London, they don’t have to bring everyone up from London as we have it all here,” she said.
“The East of England is the second most filmed region in Britain after London. “Production companies need every type of location, stately homes, farms, buildings, schools, garages, lock ups, alleyways, everything,” she said.

That’s good news for anyone considering offering their premises as a film location or their skills to a film crew and production company. “It is all needed,” she said.

Nicky said Norfolk was attractive to film companies because of its diversity. “It has stately homes, it has farmland, it has the coastline, it has towns, villages and a varied landscape,” says Nicky. “It is used a lot. It has a variety of landscape, anything from urban areas to untouched fields and countryside to relatively untouched period setting stately homes.”

“And they like the light here, she added.

On location: Miriam Margolyes on Holkham Beach in Max Pugh’s short film End of the Line which was supported by Screen East in partnership with the UK Film Council.

The Screen East database is organised so that directors seeking anything, from a high ceiling room with a Jacobean fireplace and sea view to a five bar gate leading into a field with a stream, can simply ask and suitable locations can be suggested.

Screen East works hard to link location managers with location owners and helps owners understand the rigours of filming as well as working with local authorities and agencies such as the police. “A production may want to close the road and we will be the mediator between everyone,” says Nicky. “We offer an incredibly efficient and personalised service.”

Jess Lewington, head of locations for Screen East, said owners were sometimes surprised by the amount of people involved in filming.

“A production can involve anything from two people to more than a 100 people tramping through your house,” she said, adding that Screen East aims to help location owners and productions companies work well together.

“A lot of people sign the agreement and go away but for a lot of people it is exciting, they find it good fun. It is interesting to see how filming works,” she said, adding that people are also often amazed at how quiet – and how tedious – it is, with lots of technical checks before a few seconds of camera work.

Besides any quedos they may feel at having a production using their location, it is financially worthwhile too.

“”If you have a production at your property for a long time you can make money. If you have a nice big manor house and a period drama is filmed here for instance, you can make money,” she said.

She said productions typically pay £1000 a day for a shoot day – when the cameras are there, while preparation and strike (dismantling) days are about £500.
Occasionally owners will appear in the production too!

“”You will sometimes see them walking across the lawn in the background,” said Jess.

A film company in the area is good news for the local economy as well as the location owner as the crew will be staying in the area, using local shops and often employing local people.

The Screen East team promotes the east of England all over the world, attending film festivals in Cannes and Los Angles and so on to showcase Norfolk and surrounding counties to filmmakers.

Screen East is one of the main reasons why so many productions are made in Norfolk and the east of England. In Norfolk these include The Lost Prince, Tomb Raider, Eyes Wide Shut, Die Another Day, Shakespeare in love, Poirot, The Eagle Has Landed, The Gap Between and All The King’s Men.

• Anyone interested in offering a location or joining the Screen East production guide crew and personnel directory can contact it on 01603 776920. Web: www.screeneast.co.uk

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